Wildfire
by Figment979
Summary: Set in the aftermath of July's destruction as another of Vash's brother's gains free will. This is his search for answers....


A strong gust of wind blows sand into his face. His hair, a tangled  
  
mop of red which under normal circumstances covers the left half of  
  
his face down to just below his eye, blows about in the wind. Fallen  
  
to his knees he moves his hand beneath his large tattered brown cloak  
  
to where the bullet went in. Warm blood runs between his fingers as he  
  
tries to ascertain the amount of damage done to him, "Arrgh" couple  
  
cracked ribs, maybe broken....bullet's still in there, he'd live. He  
  
squints his eyes trying to keep the sand out but still watch the man  
  
standing in front of him. The man, the one who shot him, stands over  
  
him menacingly pointing the rifle at his head. Nothing remarkable  
  
about him really, average height, looks like he works out alot he has  
  
a nice build, wears a loose fitting black shirt & pants and a black  
  
cowboy hat. Probably a rookie the man kneeling on the ground thinks,  
  
no one with any experience would wear all black on a long trip into  
  
the desert. If it weren't for the pain he would be tempted to laugh,  
  
"Is it going to end this way? Taken down by one of the geese? And a  
  
newbie at that." Geese is a nickname he gave to bounty hunters  
  
although right now he can't remember why. As he looks into the barrel  
  
of the gun resigning himself to accept his death the memories of his  
  
past come flooding back to him despite his best attempts to keep them  
  
buried.  
  
The memories come back to him in an onslaught on his senses. He can  
  
see the orphanage he grew up in as if he were looking right at it & he  
  
can almost hear the sounds of the other children laughing and playing.  
  
Those sounds he likes to remember, not the ones that would come later:  
  
the screams of pain and death.... The orphanage itself, from a  
  
distance looked as though it were a shack. Haphazardly put together  
  
and made mostly of debris that was laying around, and there was plenty  
  
of that, it looked as though a gust of wind would be all that was  
  
required to send this building tumbling to the ground. In truth  
  
however, the building was quite large, two stories high with well over  
  
a dozen rooms. The orphanage stood on the outskirts of what was once  
  
the city of July, that is to say it was the city of July until Vash  
  
the Stampede turned it to ashes and earned for himself a sixty-billion  
  
double dollar bounty. So you see, the orphange was built very quickly  
  
to offer shelter to the children left alone as a result of July's  
  
destruction.  
  
A rescue party found him inside one of July's Plants in the inner most  
  
chamber. He was only a small baby then appearing to be only a few  
  
months old. Although there were no signs of the parents it was assumed  
  
that they had been Plant engineers and brought the child there so he  
  
would be safe from the destruction. Sadly, however he would find his  
  
origins were alot less ordinary. The old woman that ran the orphanage,  
  
whom he always called Reesie, named him Zion after the paradise she  
  
read of in myths. Reesie was a short plump woman, probably no more  
  
than four and half feet tall. She wore her hair, which was gray with  
  
slight streaks of brown which had yet to give over to old age, in a  
  
bun atop her head. She always wore a long flowered dress of one color  
  
or another and an apron. Zion loved her very much, she was the closest  
  
thing he had to a mother. Within a year Zion had grown to where he  
  
appeared to be about ten years old, he had bright red hair with  
  
streaks of orange,that would grow quite wildly if left alone, that  
  
gave his hair the appearance of a flame, and he was smarter than most  
  
adults. Zion devoured all Reesie's books as if he were possessed to  
  
learn everything he could, and his instinctual knowledge of the lost  
  
technology baffled Reesie.  
  
Despite these strange things Reesie never once questioned him and  
  
always acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. And the children  
  
accepted him as only children could, with a sense of wonder that knew  
  
no fear or hate. A truck carrying supplies would come every week, the  
  
other adults had long since abandonned July leaving only the children  
  
who utterly refused to leave the only home they ever knew and the only  
  
connection to their parents they were likely to have. That was the  
  
limit of their contact with the "outside world" so there was no one to  
  
tell Zion he wasn't "normal". Over the following years Zion grew ever  
  
more quickly to where he was a teenager when he was only three. Most  
  
of the children, especially the older ones, regarded him as a guardian  
  
angel since they knew he was different than they were, but they still  
  
loved him unconditionally. So it was, he was the guardian angel with a  
  
name that meant "heaven". Surely a poet or playwright couldn't have  
  
planned it better.  
  
By the time he was five he had truly come to the realization he was  
  
very different from the other children at the orphanage. His aging had  
  
apparently slowed greatly leaving him looking about seventeen or  
  
eighteen. His reflexes were far above that of the other kids. In a  
  
game of dodgeball he was a sight to behold, he could move incredibly  
  
fast and the ball which the others could scarcely dodge at times to  
  
him seemed as if it were moving through molasses. At times he could  
  
even get feelings from the other children. When someone came to adopt  
  
one of the younger children, Zion went to say good-bye to him and when  
  
they hugged he could feel the child's sadness, fear, and hope as if  
  
Zion were experiencing the emotions himself. The experience shocked  
  
him so much it almost knocked him back off his feet. He went & asked  
  
Reesie about these things, curious why he was different and what it  
  
all meant. She looked out the window and up into the sky as if she  
  
were searching for the strength to answer these question which she  
  
always new would come and with a hint of sadness in her voice she  
  
would take his hand and look into his eyes and say softly "It means  
  
you are special.....you are an angel sent from the same place I named  
  
you after."  
  
Zion remembers how angry he had gotten when she said those things. It  
  
was foolish, he knows that now, and he curses the fact that he could  
  
have been angry with her for even a moment. He misses her so much  
  
now.... "She doesn't know......she doesn't know why I'm this way," is  
  
all he could think as he walked away from her looking down at the  
  
ground. His feelings raged in his heart like a storm, feelings of  
  
anger and sadness and of being totally alone. He stopped walking when  
  
he came to the edge of what was once July. Reesie had always warned  
  
them not to go in there, she said it was dangerous. No, he needed  
  
answers some idea of where he came from, why he was different and he  
  
knew this was the only place he might find them.  
  
Zion stood there staring at the debris that was once one of the Seven  
  
Cities. Most of the buildings had been turned to rubble in the  
  
explosion that took place, only a few of the larger buildings remained  
  
even partially intact. No one could really say with any certainty how  
  
this was caused. Even those who studied the lost technology never  
  
found anything that could come close to doing this level of  
  
destruction. All that was known was that Vash the Stampede the one  
  
they would call the Humanoid Typhoon came to this city and this was  
  
all that was left as a result. After what seemed an eternity of  
  
thinking about these things slowly he picked his foot up, it felt  
  
heavier than normal as if would take all his strength to take another  
  
step toward this place; this forbidden place which might hold the  
  
answers he so needed. No he couldn't be scared now, "I have to do  
  
this," he whispered to himself. With slow uneasy steps he made his way  
  
over to the Plant where Reesie always told him he had been found. It  
  
was as much a wreck as the rest of the city, most of the Plant had  
  
caved in on itself.  
  
Zion crawled through a large hole that led to interior. The air here  
  
was stale and the only light came from the holes in the sides and on  
  
the ceilings. Large spider webs covered everything, not that there was  
  
really much to see. All of the machinery had been either crushed or  
  
stripped of any useful components years ago. He could hear the wind  
  
blowing outside throwing dirt against the walls. Soon he went so deep  
  
into the Plant that he lost even that sound. The only thing he heard  
  
now was his own breathes. The sweat poured down his face "Pretty damn  
  
hot in here," he spoke to himself eager to fill silence with anything,  
  
"and this place....feels like I'm walking around in a tomb."  
  
He creeped on slowly making sure not to disturb anything so that he  
  
didn't cause a cave in, the light had vanished sometime ago, but he  
  
was amazed at how well he could see even in this low light. Finally he  
  
reached a large openning, which he rightly guessed was the inner most  
  
chamber where they had found him. He entered the room and stood up  
  
straight wiping the sweat from his forhead with the back of his left  
  
hand. He hadn't even realized he had been walking hunched over until  
  
he stood and felt an ache in his lower back. He placed his free hand  
  
on sore spot and arched his back trying to stretch and relieve some of  
  
the discomfort. Zion moved slowly into the center of the room, looking  
  
around in all directions. He couldn't see anything out of the  
  
ordinary, it looked very much like the rest of the Plant only it was  
  
in better shape. The force that destroyed the rest of the city  
  
appeared to have skipped over this part of the Plant. Zion could see  
  
where there had once been monitors mounted on the wall and a place for  
  
some other devices which were gone now, but those were probably  
  
removed by humans after the explosion. He walked around searching  
  
everywhere for...for...well for what he wasn't sure.  
  
After an hour of searching the room over and over again Zion had an  
  
idea. He often got feelings from other people without really trying  
  
although it confused him at first once he learned what was happenning  
  
he got used to it and could block it out most of the time. "I wonder  
  
if I could get a feeling off of a place, its possible right? Maybe I  
  
could even feel my parents." he talked to himself excitedly. He closed  
  
his eyes and concentrated, stretching out his 6th sense as far as he  
  
could. He stood motionless for undetermined amount of time until he  
  
finally openned his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Nothing....I didn't  
  
feel anything." his voice echoed the sadness he felt in his heart.  
  
"Ah, what did I think was going to happen? What did I think I was  
  
going to find?" he scolded himself.  
  
Zion looked around carefully trying to find a shorter path outside  
  
than the one he used to get here. As he walked the perimeter of the  
  
room again he heard the faint sound of the wind blowing. He followed  
  
the sound until he came to a doorway opposite of where he entered.  
  
"Hmmm.....looks safe enough and if I can hear the wind the exit can't  
  
be that far off!" He barely took two steps into the hallway and ran  
  
into a large spider's web. He screamed and jumped back frantically  
  
pulling the spiderweb off of him. "I hate spiders!" no sooner had the  
  
last word escaped his lips than he heard a voice. It sounded far away  
  
yet it seemed to be whispering in his ear, "If you just keep saving  
  
the butterflies the spiders will die...." The last word echoed and  
  
slowly faded. Zion spun around in place, his heart about to beat  
  
through his chest. He stood slightly hunched over, his arms tense at  
  
his sides with his fists clenched, looking as if he were ready to  
  
attack anything he might see. He squinted eyes trying to make out  
  
anything in the darkness that could have made that noise. "Who's  
  
there?" he shouted loudly, but only his echo answered him. After a few  
  
minutes, he turned back toward the door "Great, now I'm hearing  
  
voices." he joked trying to calm his nerves.  
  
Zion crawled through the small crevice he used as an exit & fell onto  
  
his back. He layed there staring up at the night sky panting trying  
  
rest and fill his lungs with fresh air. "Its night already?" he said  
  
resting the back of his hand on his forhead, "Man, I'm gonna get in so  
  
much trouble. Reesie's probably worried sick...especially considering  
  
the way I took off. I better hurry and get back." Taking in another  
  
lungful air he lept to his feet & looked around trying to get his  
  
bearings. As he slowly looked around he could make out the lights of  
  
the orphange in the distance. "Well at least they left the lights on  
  
for me." Zion had scarcely started walking when he heard a  
  
noise...almost a whisper in his ear. He stopped dead in his tracks,  
  
"The hell?!?!? Not that voice again!", he said attempting to mask his  
  
fear. It came to him again, it was saying something....but he couldn't  
  
quite make it out. "No," he whispered, "this isn't the same  
  
voice.....its different." The voice, kind and soft.....yet so sad. "My  
  
god, so sad!" he thought and could feel tears building up in his eyes.  
  
"What is this? What happenned to this girl?" he whispered almost  
  
choking on the words. Yes, it was girl's voice he could tell that now.  
  
He followed the voice, trembling as he walked until he came to a large  
  
crater. As he stared at the massive hole his body started shaking  
  
more, he could no longer disguise his fear. "This.....this is where  
  
the explosion occurred...." He wanted to hold back the sadness he  
  
felt, keep it from invading his heart, but that voice, that girl's  
  
voice.....a ghost from the past, a psychic echo, burnt into this place  
  
by a horrible tragedy.  
  
Zion uneasily moved into the center of the crater & fell to his knees.  
  
"What happenned here?" Reaching out, he placed his hand on the ground  
  
and the flood gates were openned. Thoughts....other people's thoughts  
  
raced through his head. "Vash, take care of Knives. Good-bye Vash"  
  
"Its the girl! But...these aren't her memories!", he thought as these  
  
feelings rushed into his mind. "Yes, Rem. I will...take care of  
  
him!".....hatred...."Now everything that brought you and Rem together  
  
is dead"......sadness......."Its time to take this trash & get rid of  
  
it FOREVER!!!".....fear.........  
  
Zion jumped to his feet as tears streamed down his face. Unable to  
  
form any words he started to back up while staring at the spot where  
  
he had been kneeling. The tears poured from his eyes uncontrollably as  
  
he shook all over. Finally he turned and ran toward the orphanage as  
  
fast as he could. He had to get away from here, away from these  
  
feelings.....away from this thing he could barely understand. Had he  
  
stayed however he might have heard another voice, not a ghost from the  
  
past like the girl's, but a voice from the present the voice of a  
  
devil dressed as a man. The voice laughed to itself, "Hmmmm......maybe  
  
its time for your lesson.....little brother."  
  
Zion lay on his back hiding his face in his arms. His eyes half  
  
closed, he could see the sunlight shining through the windows between  
  
the gaps in his arms. He had locked himself inside his room as he had  
  
gotten back to the orphanage two days and hadn't left since, not even  
  
to get food, he never even changed his clothes which were torn and  
  
stuck to his body from of all the dirt. "Who's memories were those?  
  
Vash? Could it be Vash the Stampede? It has to be." Zion had never  
  
thought about him much. Even though most of the children there hated  
  
him for what he had done to their home, Zion found it impossible not  
  
to feel sorry for this man who had apparently suffered every bit as  
  
much as the city he destroyed. "And that girl....she must be 'Rem'.  
  
Thats the name he said.....but who is Knives? What does he have to do  
  
with what happenned in July? Why does this person, Vash or whoever it  
  
might be, hate him so?......Who is Knives?"  
  
"Zion, are you ok?" he heard Reesie ask from the other side of the  
  
door. ..... No response. What could he say? How could she understand  
  
what had happenned to him? "If you need anything, I'm here for you."  
  
Tears formed in his eyes as he heard her walk away. He hated shutting  
  
her out this way, but he needed to be alone and think. "Who in the  
  
hell is Knives?"  
  
"Best be careful, some questions might be best left unanswered." the  
  
voice whispered to him softly. Zion sat up quickly in his bed eyes  
  
wide open and froze. "Heh heh. Scared? Hmph.....this will be fun." the  
  
voice said growing in its intensity yet still speaking calmly almost  
  
soothingly. "I'm not scared." Zion hissed. "Oh really?" the voice  
  
mocked him, "So you want answers? You want to learn? Alright then,  
  
we'll see if you can learn the lesson he never could. Your classroom  
  
is the large crater in July." Zion didn't answer, he just stared at  
  
the ground as a scowl came over his face. He didn't want to go back  
  
there, not there, not after what happenned. "What's wrong? I thought  
  
you said you weren't scared. Heh guess you don't want to know  
  
that...." "Shut up!" Zion shouted cutting him off, "I'll go there..."  
  
"Alright then, class is in session." with that the voice faded away.  
  
"Zion?" Ressie shouted from the other side of the door, "Zion are you  
  
ok? Who are you yelling at? Zion!" "Its unlocked," he called back,  
  
"you can come in." Ressie rushed into the room, "What going on? You've  
  
been locked up in here for days. And who were you yelling at just now?  
  
And...." she paused as she looked at Zion, "....where are you going?"  
  
Zion sat on the bed pulling on his leather gloves which had holes cut  
  
out for the fingers. "I'm just....going out for a little while. I  
  
won't be long." He stood up and she was able to take in his  
  
appearance. Leather hiking boots, blue jeans which were at least one  
  
size to big for him, and a long sleeved light brown shirt. "Zion,  
  
please stay. I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen,"  
  
she pleaded with him. "Hey, don't worry. I'll be right back, I  
  
promise," he smiled and kissed her gently on the forehead. As he  
  
walked past her he pulled on a large brown cloak that hid most of his  
  
body, totally covering his arms and his legs down to the knee.  
  
Zion walked through July, his body tense & eyes darting around looking  
  
for anything unusual. He didn't know what to expect and he didn't want  
  
to be caught by surprise should anyone try to attack him. He stopped  
  
at the edge of the crater and could see a small white object laying in  
  
the center. Before going forward he examined the surroundings once  
  
more. "I don't feel anybody. Looks like I'm alone." As he got closer  
  
he could tell that it was something wrapped in a white clothe bound by  
  
small leather straps. His heart raced as he slowly bent down to pick  
  
it up & removed the straps. "What the...?" he said as the cloth fell  
  
to the ground revealing a large copper colored 45 caliber pistol with  
  
the words "Auto Ejecting Double Action" engraved just above the  
  
trigger & the tension he felt melted away into confusion "A gun....?"  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry," the voice spoke with a coldness that terrified Zion.  
  
"Did I say the classroom was here? This is merely where you pick up  
  
your books. Your classroom is your former home.....your orphanage."  
  
the voice laughed evily as it faded once again. Zion's eyes widened as  
  
he heard screams in the distance, "Reesie!!!" he shouted as he  
  
sprinted out of the crater and toward the orphange.  
  
Zion pushed himself harder than he ever had before. But even though  
  
the buildings went by him in a blur and he cleared mounds of wreckage  
  
in amazing leaps it seemed to him as if he were moving at a snail's  
  
pace. The beat of his heart thundered in his ears even as thoughts  
  
raced through his head. What was going on? What did he mean by "former  
  
home"? Was everyone alright? They had to be...they had to. He'd kill  
  
the person who did this if even one of them was......no, they were  
  
ok.....they had to be.  
  
When Zion reached the orphange he was spent sweat poured down his  
  
face, his vision blurred as he panted trying to catch his breath after  
  
having cleared a 45 minute walk in just under 6 minutes. As his vision  
  
cleared what came into sight was something that would forever break  
  
his heart. The bodies of the children lay scattered across the ground,  
  
their blood staining the dirt red. The only sound to be heard was the  
  
crackling of the inferno that engulfed the orphanage. Zion could only  
  
stand there shaking as he tried to deny the truth of what he saw. "Oh  
  
god....no, please....not this. Please...". Trembling Zion, walked over  
  
to the body of one of the children & fell to his knees. Zion reached  
  
out his hand gently touching the side of the child's face, this poor  
  
child who had once laughed and played, who had once been alive, "I was  
  
supposed to protect you. I.....I was supposed to be your guardian  
  
angel," he whispered to the lifeless child. He swallowed his tears &  
  
kept talking, "I should've been here....Reesie tried to tell me....I  
  
never should have left. This is my fault.....I didn't protect  
  
you....this is my.....I'm so sorry...". Zion buried his face into the  
  
child's body and wept for the family he lost.  
  
The sound of footsteps behind him brought Zion to his senses as he  
  
swiftly turned & stood he looked as if were ready to face down the  
  
devil himself. Thinking about it now though it was he who must have  
  
seemed like a devil, standing his back to an inferno, small children  
  
scattered around his feet, the blood of one of the children on his  
  
hands & smeared across his cloak that blew in breeze. His eyes  
  
narrowed as he saw two men w/rifles approaching him. "If these men  
  
killed them....if they killed...." he could feel the overwhelming  
  
sadness trying to overtake the anger he felt as his eyes softened; a  
  
tear escaped turning red as it rolled down his bloodstained cheek.  
  
Zion growled at himself & he returned his cold gaze on the two men who  
  
were barely ten feet from him now.  
  
It was then he could see these men wore calvary uniforms. Zion could  
  
feel his body relax as he realized this, "Oh thank god!" he said to  
  
himself. "Thank god you're here!" he said as he started to run to the  
  
men confident that he was safe now, that he could curl up and cry now  
  
that the nightmare was over. As he heard them cock their guns,  
  
however, he realized the nightmare had just begun. "Don't move!" the  
  
man on the right yelled at him. Confusion stopped Zion in his tracks,  
  
"Wha...?!?" he said in little more than a whisper. "Put your gun  
  
down!" yelled the man on the left. "Gun?" he looked down and saw the  
  
copper colored revolver with blood smeared across the barrel held  
  
tightly in his right hand. He had forgotten about the gun until that  
  
moment. Why did it seem so natural for him to be holding it? "Put the  
  
gun down!" the man on the left repeated tearing Zion away from his  
  
thoughts.. "I didn't do this." Zion pleaded to them. "Put it down  
  
now!!!" the man on the right was getting nervous Zion could see the  
  
barrel of his gun quivering. "Listen to me!! I didn't do this." he  
  
went to motion with right hand toward the orphanage forgetting the gun  
  
he held in that hand and instantly realized his mistake.  
  
The man on the right squeezed the trigger almost before he realized he  
  
had done it, Zion on the other hand anticipated it and watched the  
  
angle of the gun's barrel to estimate the trajectory of the bullet.  
  
"Just like dodgeball," he thought to himself as he stepped out of the  
  
way in a blur, but just as he did he heard footsteps behind him and  
  
his eyes widened in fear. He knew who was behind him, Zion recognized  
  
the love for him & the joy they felt that he was still alive, he knew  
  
who was behind him directly in the bullet's path. Zion turned and  
  
could only watch as the bullet hit Reesie and she fell lifeless to the  
  
ground. And, being an empath, Zion was struck with feelings no one  
  
should ever experience. He could feel the pain of her gunshot as if it  
  
had hit him, he could feel her life draining from her, the light in  
  
her slowly being extinguished. Through all of this he felt her love  
  
for him and then, suddenly, she was gone.....her light had gone out.  
  
Zion heard thunder roaring in the distance but soon realized it was  
  
the sound his screams. His eyes narrowed to mere slits as they gave  
  
off an eerie blue irradescent glow and in one unbelievably swift  
  
motion turned toward the man who shot her, raised his gun, and pulled  
  
the trigger. The bullet hit the man in the chest and his body crumpled  
  
& fell to the ground. Just as quickly Zion turned his gun on the other  
  
man but stopped short of pulling the trigger. The glow faded from his  
  
eyes as he realized what he had just done. "What have I done? I didn't  
  
mean to....I didn't want to kill anyone..." Zion's hand started  
  
shaking as he stared at the other man who was almost totally in shock  
  
at how fast it all happenned. Soon he regained his senses and began to  
  
pul the trigger of his rifle. "No...." Zion whispered to himself,  
  
closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger. The bullet went into the  
  
man's shoulder knocking him down, & causing him to lose consciousness.  
  
"HA HA HA HA HA" the voice's laughter echoed around Zion almost  
  
deapheningly loud. "Well done! Well done. You see the worthlessness of  
  
this trash. Go ahead....kill the other one. Show me how well you  
  
learned your lesson!" "No." Zion said quietly at first but then yelled  
  
"NO!! I won't kill anyone!!!" The voice chuckled "My dear  
  
brother....you already have." And the voice faded away laughing.  
  
Zion ran from that place and soon learned they had put a  
  
thirty-million double dollar bounty on his head as "Zion the Wyldfire"  
  
charged with the crime of burning an orphanage to the ground and  
  
killing the children who lived there along with a calvarymen who  
  
attempted to bring him to justice.  
  
Staring into in the barrel of the gun all Zion could think was "I  
  
deserve this. I killed them. Its my fault they died.", but then he  
  
caught a glimpse of somthing red glistening from beneath the bounty  
  
hunter's coat that snapped him to full attention. In an instant Zion  
  
rose to his feet as he grabbed the barrel of the man's rifle pulling  
  
it from him pitching the man off balance and straight into Zion's  
  
fist.. When the bounty hunter hit the ground a large copper colored  
  
revolver fell from his coat. 


End file.
